


Company Man

by astrangerenters



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-11
Updated: 2012-03-11
Packaged: 2017-11-01 19:39:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/360489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrangerenters/pseuds/astrangerenters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two workaholics make a connection.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Company Man

He nearly spilled his mug of coffee when Aiba snuck up behind him, wrapping an arm around him. "Sho-chan!"

"Aiba-san," Sho said in acknowledgment, knuckles turning white around the mug handle as he left the floor's break area to head back for his cubicle. "What brings you up to the 31st floor?"

"You do, of course."

Sho dodged a co-worker heading in search of more coffee himself, Aiba at his heels all the way back to his workspace where the stack of file folders had seemed to increase more than decrease over the course of the day. Sho had opted to skip lunch in favor of more coffee to try and fill his stomach. And the last thing he needed was Aiba Masaki from product development pestering him.

"You could just send me an email."

Aiba frowned at him, leaning his lanky frame against Sho's cubicle wall. "How many hours have you put in already this week, Sho-chan? 20? 30?"

"Thirty-two," Sho said, sipping his coffee. It was awful. "And a half."

Aiba sighed. "That's gross. How can you be here that long? Don't the fluorescent lights start to drive you crazy?"

Product development people could never understand. They were abstract ideas people - Sho was a number cruncher up here in marketing research. "Waiting for data to come through. Look, Aiba-san..."

"Karaoke. Tonight," Aiba insisted, thumping the cube wall with his fist. "I will be here at 6:00 PM. You will have your computer off and your game face on, do I make myself clear?"

Aiba had been a pushy person since the day they'd both joined the company - they'd met at new employee orientation, and he definitely wasn't the usual type of person Sho hung out with, but Aiba was a nice guy when he wasn't trying to get Sho to go out every night. Sho had better ways of spending his salary. But since they'd mostly gotten the data in for the Singapore product launch, he supposed it couldn't hurt to go out one night.

"If you leave me alone and let me work, I will be here with a smile when you return at 6:00, okay?"

Aiba patted his head like Sho was a dog who'd just rolled over on command for the first time. "We're going to the place in Shibuya, the one that had the really good french fries. It's going to be great!"

Sho doubted that. Aiba usually brought his department colleague Ninomiya along, and the guy was not a happy drunk. They usually had to leave early to make sure Nino got home without blacking out in the street or in the middle of some office lady from the next karaoke box over's chest. Sho hoped he'd invite Ohno instead, who worked in the company cafeteria and could actually carry a tune half the time unlike Aiba's squawking into the microphone.

Aiba wandered off, leaving Sho with something to at least look forward to that wasn't work, even if it was probably not going to be as amazing as Aiba wanted it to be. Before Sho knew it, Aiba was back at 5:57 PM with Nino and someone else in tow. As soon as Sho looked up from his computer and saw who it was, he busied himself with some of the folders on his desk.

"Sho-chan, you remember Matsujun right? From corporate communications?"

Sho nodded, finally ceasing his rudeness to get up from his seat. Matsujun was actually Matsumoto Jun, who'd gotten a nickname from Aiba before they'd even gotten out of the elevator they'd met in. Aiba was the type of person who made friends in the elevator. "You looked after me during the Christmas party," Sho muttered in embarrassment, meeting the eyes that were as serious as Aiba's were mirthful. "Thank you again for your kindness."

Matsumoto had only been with the company a few weeks when the Christmas party had happened, and Aiba had gotten it in his head to spike Sho's drink. He'd ended up an embarrassing mess, and Matsumoto had helped him down in the elevator and into a cab. Sho vaguely remembered telling the man he was "pretty," and he'd hoped never to see him again because of it.

But no, that was how Aiba worked. 

"It wasn't a problem," Matsumoto said with a wry smile. "I don't usually do karaoke, but Aiba-san insisted I join you. He said you're treating everyone tonight, Sakurai-san? Thank you very much."

Sho scowled at Aiba, who was giggling like crazy as though he'd already had a few drinks somehow. Aiba immediately ignored his obvious distress. "Let's go, okay? Leader's going to meet us there!"

"Leader" was Aiba's official karaoke nickname for Ohno since he was the only one who could really sing, and at least with the five of them it might balance out the tension. They took the elevator down, cramming onto the subway for a few agonizing stops before emerging in Shibuya. Nino dragged Matsumoto away first, leaving Sho and Aiba to bring up the rear.

"What's the big idea?" Sho grumbled.

"Now now, I was just kidding about you paying for everything. A joke! Really!"

He elbowed Aiba in the side, nearly sending the man flying. "Not that. _Him_."

"Nino?"

"Masaki, you know who I mean..."

"Oh," Aiba said, a gleam in his eyes under the bright Shibuya lights. Not too many people knew about Sho's preferences, after all. "It's been hard to get you both out on the same night. You two had a real connection at the Christmas party, didn't you?"

Sho sighed. Matsumoto was quiet, or at least he'd seemed that way at the Christmas party. Then again, Sho had been drunk and slurring and obnoxious for most of their conversation that night, and the man hadn't gotten a word in. So he was quiet, but he was also good-looking, clean cut, and if he was as difficult to get out after work as Sho was, then he was just as hard-working. Ticking every box Sho had.

Didn't mean the feeling was mutual.

Aiba tugged him along. "I'll buy the first round, get you loosened up. Both of you. I don't think either of you have gotten laid in a long time, I can just tell. Let me play Cupid. Take your ties off and sing some Shiina Ringo, okay?"

They entered the karaoke place, the four of them finding Ohno already waiting in the box Aiba had rented in a fairly isolated corner of the fourth floor. They were way early on account of half-priced food before 9:00 PM, in line with Nino's tendency to eat when it didn't have to break the bank. Introductions happened between Ohno and their new friend from corporate communications, and Aiba had of course arranged it so Sho had to sit next to Matsumoto.

Aiba took charge as master of ceremonies, punching song numbers into the machine and making sure the beers and half-priced fries would just keep coming. Ohno and Nino did the first few songs, Sho lamely tapping the small tambourine in the room against his knee.

With the others so absorbed in the music, he could sense Matsumoto watching him. Sho kept his eyes on the lyrics lighting up on the screen for a while, unsure how to start a conversation. He could usually talk to anyone, if his bizarre friendship with Aiba Masaki from product development was anything to go on. It was different with someone he was attracted to - the line between colleague and more than a colleague was a lot more difficult when that person was also a guy.

"Sho-chan, why don't you and Matsujun try this one?"

With that, Nino was shoving a microphone in Sho's hand, tugging him to his feet while Ohno was handing his over to Matsumoto. They stood together side by side, Sho blinking as some song he'd never heard of, in Korean no less, started to play.

"Aiba-san!" Sho protested, but Matsumoto met his eyes.

"We can just hum along. We'll show him," the man said, smiling and happy to meet Aiba's challenge. While the others shoved fries in their mouths, he and Matsumoto squinted uselessly at the Korean words popping up on the screen, mumbling their way through a song neither of them knew. But by the second time the chorus came up, he and Matsumoto had the tune at least, and then Aiba joined in, spitting food everywhere as he replaced the lyrics with the names of random Korean actors and foods he could think of. 

By the end of the song, Aiba had moved close enough to send Sho all the closer to Matsumoto, and when they sat down again, their hands brushed. Sho bit back a groan. He wanted to blame Aiba for this mess, and he downed his third and fourth beers quickly. Eventually Nino was passed out with his head in a singing Ohno's lap and Aiba was complaining about how full he was.

"I need a quick smoke break," Matsumoto announced over the sound of Aiba's whining, excusing himself and heading for the exit.

Aiba sprung into action, yanking on Sho's arm. "Sho-chan loves smoking, he's like an ashtray. Can't get enough of it!"

This was obviously another Aiba ploy, and Sho got to his feet awkwardly, following Matsumoto from the room. He trailed the man through the narrow maze of karaoke rooms, overhearing the muted sounds of numerous people singing and cheering. The fresh air hit him like a slap in the face when Matsumoto shoved the door open at the end of the hallway, the pair of them emerging onto a rickety catwalk overlooking the dumpsters in the alley.

"I'm not really like an ashtray, whatever that means," Sho muttered when he accepted a cigarette from Matsumoto's pack, hoping his fingers weren't shaking too much while the man lit it for him. They stood quietly on the balcony, tipping ash over the rail for a few moments before Matsumoto's cell phone went off with a new mail message. He read it with little expression, the phone's glow eerily lighting up his face.

"I know what Aiba-san's trying to do, you know," Matsumoto admitted, glancing over at him and closing his phone.

Sho was happy for the renewed darkness at that moment. He didn't need Matsumoto to see his embarrassed face. A blind man could probably see what Aiba's plans had been all evening. "I'm sorry about him, he..."

"I'm not," Matsumoto said decisively. "Sorry, that is."

Sho exhaled. "Oh?"

"We should do this again sometime," he said, sending his cigarette butt flying and squeezing Sho's shoulder before heading back inside alone.

Sho stood out in the darkness for some time, wondering how on Earth a crazy Aiba plot had actually worked out well for once. When he got back to the room, Aiba informed him that Matsumoto had excused himself early.

"What did you say to him? He was in a real hurry!"

"Nothing!" Sho blurted out in confusion. All he knew was that Matsumoto wanted to see him again, and little else mattered.

Aiba was still suspicious, and he leaned over to pull a strip of condoms out of Sho's jacket pocket that Sho hadn't even noticed him putting there. "The things I do to help you out."

\--

Another karaoke night was scheduled for a few weeks later, but this time Sho arrived at the karaoke box to find Matsumoto waiting alone. He wiggled his phone. "Aiba-san will apparently not be joining us. An emergency."

Sho felt his stomach start to churn. Yeah, a real emergency, he bet. "Room's...?"

"Already paid for," Matsumoto said, gesturing to the table. "Got you a beer."

"Ah, thanks." He'd have to make sure to spill coffee all over Aiba the next time the guy found his way to the 31st floor.

It had to look odd to the staff coming and going, two guys alone. So Sho drank, switching from beer to whiskey straight up, letting the burn in his throat get him through a few more songs, Matsumoto's amused clapping encouraging him on.

"Were you serious that night?" Matsumoto asked him, putting on the same bizarre Korean song again in the background while they sat back against the sofa, empty liquor glasses scattered across the tabletop. "When you told me I was pretty?"

"I'm sorry about that, Matsumoto-san..."

"Why?"

"Not right...calling a man pretty...kind of weird..."

"You certainly sounded sincere," Matsumoto said, and Sho could barely remember that night months back - well, not as well as Matsumoto seemed to. "I wasn't insulted."

"I was drunk..." Sho reminded him, oddly amused when Matsumoto's hand slid across the cushion to rest on his thigh. Four drinks earlier he would have jumped out of the way awkwardly, but instead he relished the contact.

"Like you are now then?"

"Mmm." 

His hand eventually found its way on top of Matsumoto's, but the other man made the first official move, kissing him while the ridiculous song played in the background. There was a kaleidoscope of color in the room - reds and greens and blues while the video played, and before too long he was on his back with Matsumoto's mouth at his jaw, tugging his tie loose.

"Pretty," Matsumoto murmured, dragging his teeth down Sho's neck.

"Someone might...someone might come in," Sho muttered uselessly. 

The next song they'd keyed in came on, but Sho could barely register it. Matsumoto from corporate communications was too busy undoing his belt, unzipping him. Sho was always discrete - he was a hard worker, diligent, never a risk taker. But here he was in an unlocked room in a busy building. Anyone might forget their room number and come in. One of the staff could come in...

Matsumoto chuckled when his phone buzzed. "Damn it."

"Good timing," Sho muttered, scooting away and rezipping his pants before Matsumoto could tell him not to. He was oddly alert for a drunk person, could still taste Matsumoto on his tongue, feeling heat in all the other places the man had put his mouth to. 

"We'll have to postpone," Matsumoto said quietly, shoving his phone in his pocket as the next song in the queue came up on the machine. "I'm so sorry."

"Something wrong?" For all that Sho was still petrified of being caught, he was already missing the warmth of Matsumoto's body on top of his, how natural it had felt.

"No, nothing like that. Just something to take care of," he said, reaching for his suit jacket. Sho got to his feet slowly, wobbling a bit in his drunkenness. Better that Matsumoto had come on to him rather than vice versa - he would have been less than impressive.

"Doesn't always have to be karaoke. I could...my number, I could give you..."

Matsumoto smiled at him. "Aiba-san gave it to me ages ago. Just hadn't mustered up the courage." Once his jacket was on, he closed the distance between them to kiss Sho once more. The two of them were always busy with work - Sho had to make this one last him a good long while. "Good night, Sho-san...if that's not too forward..."

Sho wanted to say that once there was a hand down his pants, first names were just fine by him. Instead he was too drunk to be all that coherent, pressing his thumb against Matsumoto's lips. "Jun...san?"

"Remember, you're my senpai at work."

"Jun...kun?"

"You're ridiculously cute when you're drunk," Matsumoto laughed. "I'd better go. Get home safely, alright?"

"Alright."

As soon as Matsumoto, no, Jun was gone, Sho found himself dialing Aiba's number and hanging up in a fit of laughter as soon as his friend picked up.

\--

It was difficult to find times that worked for both of them. Sho kept late hours, and in the brief emails Jun sent to him through the office network, he was often out of town visiting the company's offices across the country. And in the times that did work, it would only be an hour here, a late lunch there. They'd be interrupted during a quick meal or a hasty half-clothed fumble in a bathroom stall by the constant ringing of Jun's phone.

It was work calling him back in, Jun explained, always apologetic, which made it easy for Sho to forgive him. Sho had spent plenty of nights at the office himself, using his suit jacket as a blanket in an empty conference room while he waited for data to come in from the offices on the other side of the globe. And every time Jun left it was with a promise of continuing later, always giving Sho something to look forward to.

Granted, he didn't know much about Jun yet. Being so obnoxiously devoted to their jobs meant that most conversations ended up back there at some point. And Sho wasn't sure what he was really looking for - it had mostly been physical between them so far, and it was fine by him. After a ten hour day staring at a computer screen, it wasn't so bad to split a cheap bottle of wine back at his apartment before going down on someone who was still a bit of a mystery. They never went to Jun's place, and Jun rarely talked about himself. Sho had always been careful - with Jun there was always a sense of danger. A sense of not knowing the person he was sleeping with very well at all.

Aiba had friends in HR (of course, Aiba had friends in every department), and Sho's email pinged one day with "Next week is Matsujun's birthday! It's in his personnel file! Planning anything?"

Sho didn't have the slightest idea what to do. Planning something for Jun's birthday would put a label on their odd situation - hell, it would probably define what they had as a "relationship," and even if Sho knew he liked Jun enough to want to move forward in that way, he really had no idea who the guy was.

"Maybe I'll follow him, see what stores he visits," he ended up writing back to Aiba. "Then I'll surprise him."

"Stalker!" was all Aiba wrote in response, leading Sho to roll his eyes. Said the guy having his buddies pull personnel files.

So when Sho finally decided to get out of his comfort zone and become a full-fledged Jun stalker, things started out in a fairly normal way. With a phone call from Aiba signaling that Jun was "on the move" after work, Sho followed him onto the subway wearing a baseball cap and casual clothes - Jun usually saw him in a suit (or mostly out of it). He'd never notice Sho dressed like that.

Sho thought he'd finally catch a glimpse of Jun's neighborhood, a little insight into the man from corporate communications who wasn't so good at karaoke but usually had better things to do with his mouth when in Sho's company. Where did Jun live? What stores did he visit?

Instead he caught more than a glimpse of what Jun got up to after work hours. Jun's secrecy might have made more sense in Sho's mind if he was married or in another relationship or something of that nature. That was normal, that was almost expected. Sho had gotten tangled up with married guys before. That was something Sho could have mentally processed and gotten over.

In his baseball cap and casual clothes he ended up crouched behind a dumpster in Kabukicho, peeking around to see Jun at the opposite end of the alley with a gun pointed at another man. Sho could only watch as Jun pulled the trigger without a moment's hesitation, sending the man's body back against the brick. A silencer on the gun kept Jun's dealings quiet, and Sho watched Jun methodically wipe the gun clean, placing it in the man's hand to give off the illusion of suicide. The careful, thoughtful actions gave Sho the impression that Jun had done this before.

Jun picked up the man's metal briefcase, looking both ways down the alley before slipping off into the night like nothing at all was amiss.

\--

For the next month, Sho tried to forget what he'd seen. It had been dark, he told himself time and time again. Maybe it hadn't been Jun in that alley pulling the trigger. Maybe Sho had just happened across a yakuza assassination. It had been all over the news, an unsolved murder made to look like a suicide.

When Jun emailed him, Sho sent it into the trash without reading it. When Jun called, Sho didn't answer. Jun never ventured to the 31st floor to confront him. And since a month had passed, it seemed that Jun had taken the hint. Sho wondered if he should have called the police that night instead of fleeing like a coward and trying to forget. He buried himself in work more than he ever had, putting in 70, 80 hour work weeks. But as long as Jun worked in the same building, it would be impossible to forget. As long as he remembered Jun's hand on that gun, the same hand that had touched him, he simply couldn't.

And there was always Aiba, sticking his nose where it didn't belong. 

"Let's try for karaoke tonight," Aiba said, finding Sho in the cafeteria and sticking to him like a parasite. "There's this girl from accounting, Shihori-chan...I think she likes me..."

"Can't go, not tonight," Sho protested.

"Oh, so if you want to hook up with someone you'll go but if I need someone to talk me up, you're not interested all of a sudden?"

Aiba didn't usually take such a tone with him, or anyone for that matter, so he was probably serious about the girl in accounting. Sho had alienated enough people in the past month in his paranoia. He didn't need to push Aiba away. "Jun's not going, is he?"

"You guys done already?" Aiba asked, features softening once more now that his threat had been successful.

"Guess you could say that."

Aiba frowned. "And I thought you really hit it off."

Sho remembered Jun meticulously cleaning off the gun, putting it in the hand of the man he'd murdered.

"Yeah, I thought so too."

\--

When they made it to the karaoke box that night, Sho nearly turned right back around when he saw Jun already there with Ohno.

"I invited Jun-kun," Ohno said with a smile. "He hasn't been out with us in a while."

Their eyes met, the eyes that Sho had once thought were so mysterious and interesting. Jun looked more confused and hurt than anything, and Sho looked away. Aiba looked apologetic briefly before turning his attentions to his own target, introducing Kanjiya Shihori-chan from accounting to the group.

Sho made sure that Aiba and his date were between him and Jun. He couldn't exactly leave as soon as he got there, and he also couldn't accuse Jun of being a murderer in front of everyone. If there was any tension in the air, it was just between him and Jun. An oddly generous Nino bought the first round of drinks, wiggling close to Shihori-chan to tell her embarrassing stories about Aiba while Ohno sang merrily.

When the whole group started to sing, he stayed seated with his tambourine. He knew Jun was watching him. Sho didn't much care if Jun's feelings were hurt. How could someone like Jun even have any with what he did?

Sho eventually received a mail message on his phone, and he got to his feet. It was just some junk mail, but he pretended to apologize to the group. "Ah, I'm sorry. I'm needed at home."

"Everything okay, Sho-chan?" Aiba asked.

"My mother's been sick," he lied, "I just want to go and check in."

"Well, I hope she's alright," Ohno said, and the others chimed in with similar sentiments. Jun stared straight at him, furious and the only one seeing right through his lie, and Sho knew he had to get out of there.

He apologized, slipping out of the room, hurrying down the stairs and out into the night. He made it to the subway entrance, but his escape was short-lived when he heard the all too familiar voice behind him.

"Sick mother, huh?"

He was only a few feet away from the turnstile, and he moved aside. At least they were in the entrance to the station - people would be milling about. Witnesses.

Sho couldn't bear to look at him. "I have to go."

"I've had one night stands before, and I've never called again. That's to be expected, but I thought we had something more than that, Sakurai-san," Jun said, his voice cold.

"Well, you're wrong..."

Jun grabbed hold of his arm, and Sho started to panic. "You can't be a decent human being and just say something? I liked you, I did from the start, so what the hell happened? You can just say if it's someone else or you were just in it for sex or whatever, but you owe me more than what you're giving me."

"Jun, I have to go," he muttered, wondering if it was worth making a scene in front of the other passengers coming and going all around them. Or maybe he'd have a heart attack first.

"Oh, so you just don't want people at work to know you fuck men, is that it? Wouldn't want to get caught somewhere with me and let your secret get out?"

Sho finally pushed the man away from him, lowering his voice so only Jun could hear him. "I saw you. A month ago, I saw you in Kabukicho."

Jun's eyes narrowed. "Saw me?"

He knew his voice was trembling, but he didn't much care. "I saw you shoot and kill someone, Matsumoto. Point blank. So there isn't someone else. It has nothing to do with sex and not a god damned thing to do with anyone finding out. I don't want to see you, I don't want to think about you. Leave me the fuck alone, and I won't tell the police that it was you."

Jun's face went pale. "Sho, it's not what you think..."

"So you're not denying it?"

"Listen to me..."

"You're not denying it?" he repeated, raising his voice

Jun grabbed hold of him again, and this time Sho felt the press of metal against his stomach. He didn't know how Jun had gotten the gun out so fast, positioning them so they looked like they were still just two people having a conversation. "I can explain what you saw..."

"...and then you'll kill me, too? Is that it?"

Jun pushed the gun against him harder, right into his ribs. "We're getting on this train, and you're coming with me. Right now."

"Where are we going?"

"Back to work."

\--

When they arrived back at the company headquarters, most of the building had gone dark. The lobby was empty save for security, and Jun walked at Sho's side, gun concealed in his suit jacket. When they boarded the elevator, Jun pulled out a special card, pressing it against a panel beneath the floor numbers, and the elevator started to ascend.

"I saw you kill him."

"Did you see any blood?"

Sho opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't. He saw Jun pull the trigger, saw the man slump back against the wall but...

"I'll ask you again. Did you see any blood? Did his brains splatter against the wall? Did you even check to see the man?"

"You work in corporate communications, Jun..." Sho muttered, wondering what the hell was going on.

"I don't spend my whole day writing press releases," Jun replied as the elevator doors opened to one of the upper floors. 

Sho had never been up here before, and there was a sterile calm to the floor as Jun led him down a marble floored hallway. He used his special card again to get them through a set of double doors to find a young woman Sho had never seen before on the other side.

"Matsumoto-san, what brings you here so late?" she asked, looking calmly at the both of them.

"Compromised," he said in reply, then gave Sho a little push forward. "Sakurai Sho, marketing research."

"I see," the woman said, looking at Sho with what could only be amusement before looking back at Jun. "They're waiting for you inside. Sakurai-san, if you'll follow me please."

And finally Jun's eyes looked almost sincere again, all the anger seeming to have seeped away as soon as they made it to whatever the hell secret part of the company they were in. "Go with her. She won't hurt you."

Sho did as he was told, growing more confused by the minute as he followed the woman into a side room. She brought him some coffee that he was too scared to drink, and she introduced herself as Inoue Mao, secretary to Chairman Takeda. 

His eyes widened. "Chairman Takeda? Chairman of the board Takeda?" The most powerful man in the company was involved with whatever was going on here?

She smiled. "The very same."

"Inoue-san, I don't want to alarm you, but Matsumoto-san...Matsumoto-san, he..."

She slipped her hand across the table to grab hold of his. "Don't panic, Sakurai-san. We anticipated your arrival here, though not on this sort of timetable. Please relax, everything will be explained to you." She got up, heading for the door. "You've been a fine employee for many years, and they'll take that into consideration."

"I saw Jun..." He tried again, still confused by the gentle smile on the secretary's face. "I saw Matsumoto-san kill someone."

"And he's definitely going to get in trouble for that," she said cheerfully. "Leaving witnesses. Seems he's sloppy when he's in love."

And with that confusing statement, Inoue-san left the room, locking the door behind her.

The room was sparsely furnished with the small table and chairs, some abstract artwork, and a potted fern. The walls were a dull beige like most of the decor on Sho's own floor, and he got to his feet, pacing in confusion. Something was going on at this company, the company where Sho had worked for years. He'd never questioned anything, never wondered what happened on the upper floors. It was just a normal company like any other, or so he'd thought.

Finally, the door opened once more and Inoue-san returned, this time with Chairman Takeda and several other men who Sho soon recognized as those from upper management - the chief operating officer, the chief financial officer...what kind of business was going on here?

"Sakurai Sho-san," Chairman Takeda said, smiling at him warmly. "Our bright star in marketing research."

He bowed immediately. "Chairman."

"Please, come with us. Don't be frightened. There's much to tell you."

Sho nervously followed the men and Inoue-san to a conference room where Jun was waiting, looking rather nervous himself. It was difficult to reconcile the image of Jun before him with the cold-blooded killer he'd been imagining for the past month.

Everyone had a seat, and Chairman Takeda ensured that Sho had a prominent place at the table with them so he could view the screen that had been brought down at the opposite end of the room.

"Sakurai-san, as you know we are a Nikkei 225 company with interests worldwide. We have competitors, we have enemies. Let me just say that in order to remain a dominant force in our field, it is absolutely imperative that we protect our interests," Takeda explained, nodding to Inoue-san.

She had a clicker in her hand and advanced the projector overhead, showing the image of a dead man slumped in an alleyway on the screen. It was the man he'd seen Jun murder. Sho recoiled, but nobody else in the room reacted.

"This is Sakaguchi Hayato-san, age 56, product engineer and a loyal employee of our firm for 27 years. You may have seen him on the news," Takeda said, and the men around the table chuckled lightly. "We discovered that Sakaguchi-san was intending to sell company secrets to our main competitor in China for a hefty sum of money."

"So you had him killed?" Sho mumbled, hands tightening on the arms of his seat.

"Goodness, no!" Takeda said, nodding again for Inoue-san to advance the slides. In quick succession, Sho saw police crime scene photos of Sakaguchi's body in the alleyway, then Sakaguchi in a body bag, the body bag inside an ambulance and then... "Watch this bit, Sakurai-san."

Inoue-san advanced the slide. It was Sakaguchi in the body bag, sitting up in the ambulance. He looked deadly serious, but utterly alive.

"There are many ways to deal with traitors, Sakurai-san, as I'm sure you know. Sakaguchi had been an employee for a long time. He had a wife and four children. When our intelligence revealed his plans, it was necessary to punish him for it. And so we took him out of the equation. We faked his murder and spirited him away."

Sho took this in, easing his grip on the chair. "What does that mean, Takeda-san?"

"It means that we made a deal with Sakaguchi-san. You can't simply fire someone who has threatened the livelihood of the entire company, wouldn't you agree? We're a multinational corporation and responsible for the employees worldwide. In exchange for faking his death and setting up a new, heavily monitored life for him in a foreign locale, he agreed to keep his mouth shut. Of course, his wife and children have been heavily compensated for the loss of their breadwinner in such a tragic way..."

"You took him away from his family? They think he's dead for real?"

"Everyone outside of this room believes that," Takeda said, and Sho was rather horrified by how pleasant and jovial the atmosphere remained. "So long as we take care of his family, he won't leave our custody or make contact with anyone. Sakaguchi-san realizes his mistake."

Sho thought of the man in the body bag, staring at the camera - alive, but at what cost?

"Matsumoto-kun is one of a handful of our most trusted employees," Takeda continued, changing the topic. Jun nodded, trying to meet Sho's eyes. "What happened with Sakaguchi-san was an extreme case. We mostly have Matsumoto-kun here on retainer for competitive intelligence purposes. Routine surveillance, investigations, negotiations, data retrieval."

Sho thought of all those phone calls Jun had received. He hadn't really been lying - it had always been work calling, but the work was not what Sho had thought. "And by competitive intelligence you mean corporate espionage? That's illegal, is it not?"

"Again, Sakurai-san, we are a large company. We're only protecting our interests. People like Matsumoto-kun ensure that your job and the jobs of thousands remain secure."

The eyes of every man in the room were on him, and Sho could read between the lines. "I caught Matsumoto-san in the middle of...protecting company interests." He looked up, seeing the calm faces. He could be in a body bag like Sakaguchi-san by the end of the night if he didn't play this the right way. He could see worry radiating off of Jun, and it frightened him. Jun didn't strike him as someone who got scared easily. "Will I be punished for what I saw?"

"That's why you're here having a conversation with us," Takeda assured him. "Your service to our company has been invaluable, and we'd hate to lose you."

In other words, they were going to blackmail him. Inoue-san set down a stack of papers before him, handing him a pen. She squeezed his shoulder in encouragement or sympathy, though Sho couldn't tell the difference at this point. 

"Jun signed the same things?" he asked quietly so only she could hear him. She squeezed his shoulder again.

Inoue-san remained at his side, turning the papers as he signed each one. Takeda-san was chatting with the other board members and c-level executives, speaking just loud enough so Sho could hear. He heard Takeda bragging about Sho's university credentials, about where Sho's father worked, where his mother worked, even about his brother and sister. The threats to his family had been heard by the entire room. His pen trembled in his hand, and Inoue-san whispered that it would be alright. How would it ever be alright again?

When the signing was done, he looked back up at the suits in the room, each of them complicit in illegal activity. And now Sho was too. For the sake of the company, or so they claimed.

Takeda came over to shake his hand, and despite the man's age, his grip was firm. "You will continue to work normally and without fear. We're all friends now, aren't we, Sakurai-san?"

"Yes, sir."

"I'm so glad to hear it. I'll have a word with your supervisor, get you out of that cubicle. I think you're long overdue for a promotion. Have a lovely evening."

With that the men departed the conference room as though they'd had a simple meeting. Inoue-san gathered up the papers and turned the projector off. "Good night, Sakurai-san."

Jun watched her leave, and then the two of them were alone in the conference room. Sho remained in his seat, Jun stood at the opposite end of the table.

Sho had a million questions to ask - about what had really happened with Sakaguchi-san, if Takeda and the board were full of shit, how far they'd made Jun break the law for their own interests. But he couldn't because Jun looked exhausted.

"Now I know why you stopped talking to me," Jun said quietly, leaning against the table.

Sho sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Inoue-san said Jun had signed the same papers Sho had, promising that he'd keep his mouth shut. "Did they threaten your family? Or did you volunteer to be their spy?"

Jun looked at him across the table. "They recruited me my first week here, but it wasn't voluntary. They put pictures of my family up on the screen. Recent pictures. They made it into a slide show with transitions and music. Told me I had potential." He had tears in his eyes. "Sho, I'm so sorry."

Sho took this in. "If I'd gone to the police then...if I'd tried to report you..."

"Then you would have gone the way of Sakaguchi, no doubt. I swear, they don't kill people, but it's not much better. They have friends in the government, in the police. Our company's responsible for a few percentage points of the national GDP, so it's apparently in everyone's interest that we stay number one in our field," Jun explained.

"I shouldn't have followed you that night."

"Why did you anyway?"

Sho found himself laughing despite his horrible night. "I didn't know anything about you. Where you live, what restaurants you really like, I just...I wanted to know more about you. Because I...I really liked you." Jun perked up at that. "I didn't know exactly what I wanted, and I still don't. But I really liked you."

"So it's strictly past tense then?" Jun asked. "I mean, I understand, given all that's happened. Again, I can't tell you how sorry I am. I only brought you here tonight to protect you. This was the only way to protect you. It's my fault for pursuing something with you in the first place. I was so alone, and I was selfish. I wanted you. And because of it, I put you at risk."

"You did," Sho admitted. 

He'd spent the past month convinced that Jun was a murderer with no remorse. But now he'd learned that Jun had been blackmailed into his situation. Jun obviously put himself at risk spying for the company every day, but he did it to protect his family. And now he'd done everything in his power to ensure that Sho wasn't "spirited away" by men with power Sho couldn't even imagine.

"Being with you," Jun said, "being with you, Sho-san, it made me happy. Some people dread going in to work every day because they have a shitty boss or difficult clients or too much work. I dreaded coming here because I didn't know what they were going to make me do next. But then I met Aiba-kun, Aiba-kun without a care in the world, and then through him I met you, and I realized that even if I hate what they make me do, it means that you and Aiba-kun have jobs. You and Aiba-kun and Nino and even Leader in the cafeteria..."

Sho couldn't help grinning at how quickly Matsumoto had found his way into their karaoke crew.

"And you liked me, too, Sho-san, even though I deliberately kept you in the dark," Jun continued. "I couldn't tell you anything about me, I was too scared to take you home, to let you in because I didn't want you to ever have to sit in this room. I thought I could have you and have this other life, and I just...damn it, you're just too curious for your own good."

"I'm sorry."

Jun moved away from his end of the table, walking over until he was an arm's length away. "You don't owe me any apologies. Now I've gotten you into this, and I will not let them touch you or your family. That's a promise. I won't let them recruit you. I'll do whatever they want," Jun told him, and Sho hurt to see the pain in Jun's eyes, the real regret. "I'll cheat, I'll lie, I'll steal, I'll break the law, I'll do whatever it takes so you can live a normal life. I swear."

He got up shakily, holding on to the back of the conference room chair. He'd learned more about Matsumoto Jun in one night than he had in months. "Jun..."

"You'll never have to see me again, they can transfer me to another office..."

"Jun," he repeated. "Stop. I just want to go home."

"But Sho-san, I..."

"And I want you to come with me."

They split a cab to Sho's apartment, and they didn't speak the entire time save for giving the driver directions. Jun followed him inside, lacking the cool, collected demeanor he'd always had on previous nights like this. Sho unlocked the door, urging Jun in first.

They slipped out of their shoes, and Sho couldn't take it any longer. He roughly pulled Jun to him, kissing him the same as he had when things had been far less complicated. Jun cared for him, deeply. Jun had only wanted to protect him, and they were both pawns of a company that could turn on them in an instant. Jun had vowed to take care of him, but then who could take care of Jun in return but Sho himself? Only Sho would ever really understand the sacrifices Jun made every day. Jun needed him.

They only managed to shed half their clothes before winding up in Sho's bed, and Sho wanted Jun's hands everywhere. They weren't the hands of a murderer, but the hands of someone who'd had most of his choices taken away from him. 

"Touch me," Sho begged him, "and don't stop."

\--

"It's a buy one, get one on the karaage platters!" Aiba-san cheered as he and Shihori-chan perused the menu. "Who's hungry?"

Nino growled. "Are we ever going to get something that hasn't been deep fried first? My stomach can't take it."

Ohno was too busy singing to offer any input, so he and Jun simply went along with Aiba's schemes. It was always easier to just let Aiba decide on the food.

"We need more beer, too," Jun said. "I heard that Sho-san was paying for everyone tonight."

"You heard wrong!" Sho cried, flinging the tambourine at him as Ohno's song ended. "Okay, what's next, are we doing Mr. Children or not?"

"Southern All-Stars," Nino said. "I think there's four in a row..."

"Four in a row?" Shihori-chan complained, smacking Aiba in the arm. "You said we were mixing things up."

"You don't like Southern All-Stars?" Aiba asked incredulously. "I might have to break up with you."

"You might have to break up with _me_?" she shot right back at him. "When I put up with your garlic french fry breath all night?"

"It's starting already," Nino said, trying to find someone to take the other microphone. "We're paying for this, somebody sing the fucking song!"

Jun's phone went off, and Sho froze even as the others continued laughing and arguing. He met Jun's eyes as soon as he finished reading the message, giving Sho a slight nod. 

"Oh, you have to leave already?" Sho complained theatrically, and the others voiced their displeasure too.

"Duty calls," Jun said with a smile, even if Sho knew it was a front. "I'm sorry everyone."

"I'll walk him out," Sho said. "I'll go put in our order while I'm gone."

"You just want to kiss him goodbye," Aiba teased. "You can do that in front of us, we don't care!"

He and Jun left, shutting the door behind them. The Southern All-Stars were muffled through the door, and Sho tangled his fingers in the sleeve of Jun's jacket. "What is it this time?"

"Dumpster diving," Jun said. "The glamorous stuff they don't put in the corporate spy manual."

Sho nodded. "Be careful."

"I think you and all that fried chicken are a more hazardous situation tonight," Jun said before kissing him briefly. "I'll see you later, promise."

Jun left, looking like any other company worker in Tokyo. But he had a job to do, and Sho understood.


End file.
